I'm Just Me

Meet Alex. Alex is a boy who doesn’t believe being a boy or a girl should determine how you think; he is just Alex. 

He lives near Midtown and travels over the bus network having adventures in some very unusual surrounding towns with his dog Blink, whose main aim in life is to sniff everything in the world and who dreams of being RocketDog. 

At the ends of the bus lines, they meet people who live in closed towns, they are either all black or white, gay or straight, religious or atheist, rich or poor, old or young, or very differently able. 

Alex can’t understand why they should live like this. He tries to get them to travel to Midtown, where they might be surprised by how people of all kinds can live together equally. Blink thinks they are all equally sniffable. If Alex is just Alex, perhaps they might realise they can just be themselves too, just equal individuals, with equally important mixtures of properties. 

I’m Just Me looks at how we all tend to label people, to place them in boxes, usually because of one main property: colour, gender, sexuality, mental or physical ability, wealth, religion, politics, class or age. BUT each property is a line and we are all a dot on every one of those lines somewhere. Where all the lines cross for us, we find our own point of individuality. 

If each point is equal, then WE MUST ALL BE EQUAL.

I, A Dumb Boy

“‘Oh, Thomas, do you recall the miracle you performed?’

Yes, I did recall the miracle, if that’s what it was. I recalled other things too. Fergus and the secret chamber. Caty and her still-born child. My sister’s treacherous kiss.”

Norfolk, Virginia, 1775. Thomas Starling is fourteen years old but has never found the courage to speak to anyone except his older sister, Bethany. A visit from a stranger one night triggers a series of events that leads them to embark on a journey to the city of New York. There they encounter a community of outcasts and a demoralised army preparing for a British attack. Thomas yearns to be free of his boyhood and his dependence on his sister, but he is haunted by bitter memories of that terrifying night on the Georgian frontier … the girl in blue, the burning barn, the hanging corpse. His past is finally catching up with him.

I, Jandamarra

Jandamarra is an aboriginal warrior of the spiritual Kimberley area of Australia, home to the tribe known as the Bunuba people. Jandamarra is a legendary hero of the 1890s known to his people as a Jalgangurru, a magic man, due to his extraordinary skills and abilities.

He is a cheeky, likeable boy, and a quick learner. At around 12 years of age, Jandamarra, named Pigeon by the whitefellas, begins working on a sheep station, where he learns to shoot, ride horses, and live among the whitefellas. These are skills which will serve him well in his manhood. He is popular among whitefellas and enjoys the excitement and movement of their way of living, but the time comes when he must return to his tribe for initiation into manhood.

Jandamarra is torn between black and white cultures. But how can he belong to two different worlds with each pulling at his loyalties? How can he be accepted by one without rejecting the other?

This powerfully spiritual story of the legendary Jandamarra is based on extensive research of people and events.

Ice Kids

A journey to their winter camp far to the south finds six snow and ice kids locked in an underground prison from which they must escape if they are to survive. A near fatal disaster, a welcome discovery, hunted by a ferocious enemy, and befriended by the most unusual animal will find them battling for their lives. Jay, their leader, alone must solve the most difficult challenges that will bring the need for every one of the children to work together.

Wonders of an ice world and vivid memories of a long-forgotten past will haunt them all the way until finally, a last desperate battle will determine whether they will be triumphant or whether they will perish.

Ickle Pickle

The children in James' new school in Little Tooting have been terrorised by the local bully, Roger Grimes, and his gang of trouble-makers ever since Roger started school. As the newest arrival, James is having a whole new set of problems devised by Roger Grimes, which inevitably land him in trouble.

The last straw comes when his art teacher has blue paint poured down the back of her shirt and yet again James is blamed. Roger has most of the children terrified, so no-one will stand up to him when he and his friend Edward blame it all on James.

This is also the last straw for the headmistress who calls James’ mother. He is suspended for one week. While suspended James meets some very special friends: Bella and Old Fella, two very special dogs. James is shocked to discover that they understand him and that he can talk to them. Between them, they hatch more than one plan to put a stop to Roger Grimes reign of terror over the schoolyard, with the most unexpected consequences.

If Cars Could Talk

Red Raphael has his wits about him and he thinks he’s the fastest car ever. He challenges Pretty in Pink to race around the lake later that night. She gladly accepts the challenge and turns up at midnight. Mean and Green, Blue Will Show You, along with Pretty in Pink and Red Raphael show up. The race begins and it appears Red Raphael is in the lead. However, the race takes a surprising turn and the outcome shocks them all !!!!!  

If Cows Could Fly

Ever seen a flying cow, a horse that knits, or an eel that rides a bike? Well, welcome in to a world where your fantasy and imagination can bring them all to life.

This set of humorous poems, mainly concerning the strange things animals may get up to, are suitably illustrated by the author's whimsical drawings.

If Only...

Set in the early 1970s, If Only is based around three 16-year-old lads and the hilarious experiences and adventures they encounter through family life, sport, girls and holidays.The down-to-earth, original humour is guaranteed to appeal to all age groups and you are assured to laugh out loud throughout the book.There is also a more serious and nail-biting element as James, the natural leader, decides he has to avenge an injury to his friend and goes to the nearby village aided by the local gang of bullies, with disastrous consequences. Over a period of a week his life spirals downwards as he is accused of a string of crimes and he lays in bed nightly thinking, “If only...”Running alongside this is Robert who is bullied by a gang to the point where he is about to end his life, but decides to take the alternative route and take them on at their own game.The book draws inspiration from the humour of The Royle Family, from Tales of the Unexpected with its twist in the tale and from the film The Warriors. It showcases the humorous side of teenage life, together with adventures, excitement and edge-of-your-seat suspense, in a combination that will not disappoint.

If Time Were Not a Moving Thing

Set in the glamorous world of opera, the book charts the tempestuous and passionate relationship between the world-famous soprano, Marie Nyman, and Arabella Cooper, a young pianist and aspiring conductor. Marie is married and deeply in the closet, Arabella out and proud. Can Marie overcome her fears and acknowledge the love of her life, as Arabella’s career takes off? Two beautiful women battle their demons in locations as diverse as New York, London, Vienna, and Munich.

If You Can't Take a Joke

The gates of RAF Swinderby were the entrance to an alien world in the eyes of a young man with no previous military experience, and arrival there came as a shock to the senses; a shock which the instructors did their level best to maximise, by giving every instruction and making every observation in an ear-splitting shriek that could melt earwax. From dawn until dusk there was no respite as a host of alien concepts were hammered into us from a variety of different sources, nor from dusk until midnight when we would be cleaning every nook and cranny of our barrack block until everything gleamed, although it never seemed to be shiny enough for the corporal or the sergeant.

Gradually though, the unfamiliar became familiar as those alien concepts sank in and stopped being alien, as we learned and toughened up, becoming the best we thought we could be, and then exceeded that and started to become as good as the instructors thought we could be; until we really learned how to take a joke.

If You Only Had Time

This book isn’t about what you produce for your boss or your client, it’s about how you pilot yourself through your career, pick your way through the challenges that come your way and squeeze the most out of the chances you get to learn and develop.

Spending time (and money) with the right executive coach could be the best investment you’d ever make. Maybe that doesn’t fit into your programme today. But if you could be sitting with your coach right now, here’s what you’d be likely to learn.

If You See Him, Let Me Know

Heralded by Publisher's Weekly as "a writer to watch" with a "magnificent sense of character and ear for dialogue", Todd London returns with If You See Him, Let Me Know, a stunning novel set at the crossroads of two generations--one marked by what it witnessed, the other by what it missed. It's August 1974, the eve of Nixon's resignation. Jerry Rosen is facing prison for a messy, white-collar crime. Before sentencing, he has to tell his son Philip, a teenager at a theatre camp in the Midwest. To the suburban kids at Friedkin camp, history is a game of dress-up. Tragic world events get retold as stage musicals--World War II as South Pacific, the Holocaust as Fiddler on the Roof. Anne Frank is a role to play--Philip's friend Kathy Klein plays it to the hilt. For Jerry, who served as an army medic in Germany, and for the camp's compassionate matriarch Lila Sahlins, the past can't be sung away. Jerry's confession unearths secrets that will change the course of Philip's life and trigger a pair of haunting disappearances. "This is a killer coming-of-age story: gripping and compassionate. I haven't stopped thinking about it." - Lisa Kron, Fun Home, the musical "…An engrossing journey, culminating in a denouement that is surprising, gratifying, and eminently moving." - Kia Corthron, The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter "Todd London is a master conjurer of the lost--of lost youth, lost promise, lost Chicago, lost America." - Adam Langer, Crossing California "A novel that harrows the heart." - Octavio Solis, Retablos